33 Men

On the morning of August 5, 2010, thirty-three men gathered at the entrance to the San Jose copper mine outside Copiapo, Chile, for a twelve-hour shift. At approximately 11:30am, the earth cracked sharply; two and a half hours later there was a massive thud unlike any the men had heard before. A giant section of the mine had collapsed. Thirty-three men scrambled for refuge inside the mine and headed for the safety shelter -- a 540-square-foot room stocked with enough food and liquid to last a group of ten men forty-eight hours. Their nightmare had begun. Above ground, mine and rescue workers searched for signs of life. A slab of rock had sealed the main tunnel of the mine -- later estimates would put it at 700,000 tons, almost twice the weight of the Empire State Building. Even if the thirty-three men below ground had reached the safety shelter, a question remained: Could rescuers do the same? For the next seventeen days, engineers drilled and families prayed, with dimming hopes for the men's survival. And then, on August 22, at 5:50am, a drill bit pierced the tunnel near the miners' safety shelter. It came back up with a note attached to the tip -- "Estamos bien en el refugio los 33" ("We are all right in the shelter, the 33 of us"). "33 Men" is the story of the miraculous survival and rescue of all thirty-three miners, who for sixty-nine days lived inside the collapsed mine. Toggling between the action below and above ground, award-winning journalist Jonathan Franklin builds a gripping narrative with never-before-revealed details of life inside the mine during one of the longest entrapments in human history -- and what had to happen above ground for the successful rescue of the miners. Granted a "Rescue Team" pass that gave him exclusive access to the trapped miners and the rescue operation, Franklin was able to watch the drama from the front rows and interview the emergency workers and family members, the engineers and the miners themselves. This engrossing story of tragedy averted is filled with moments of depravity and genius, beauty and comedy, grief and exhilaration. Based on more than one hundred interviews and Franklin's eyewitness account, "33 Men" is an unforgettable adventure story that will leave readers breathless.